Similar species: Sambucus racemosa ssp. pubens is similar but has egg-shaped cymes, a brown pith, fruit that is usually bright red, and a flowering time that ends by June. Also, the occasional variety S. canadensis var. acutiloba differs by having deeply dissected leaves.

Flowering: June to late August

Habitat and ecology: Common in degraded woodlands and shaded floodplains. It is also common along roadsides, fencerows, and small streams.

Occurence in the Chicago region: native

Notes: The pith of this plant is soft enough to be removed from the stem, enabling the stem to be made into a whistle or flute.

Etymology: Sambucus comes from the Greek word sambuke, a musical instrument made of elder wood. Canadensis means "of or from Canada and North America."

Shrub to 3 m, spreading underground and eventually forming thickets; younger stems scarcely woody, with long internodes and large white pith; lfls 5-11, usually 7, lanceolate to ovate, variable in size, acuminate, sharply serrate (rarely laciniate), the lower occasionally divided into 3, glabrous or more often hairy beneath; infl 5-rayed from the base, flat or convex, 5-15 cm wide; fls white, 3-5 mm wide; fr purple-black (seldom red, green, or yellow), edible, 5 mm; 2n=36. Moist woods, fields, and roadsides; N.S. and Que. to Man. and S.D., s. to Mex. and the W. Ind. July, Aug. The common phase in most of our range, with the lf-pubescence mostly setulose and largely restricted to the veins, is var. canadensis. Ozarkian plants, from Ill. to Tex., with fine short pubescence on both the veins and the lf-surface, may be distinguished as var. submollis Rehder.

Fruit, when mature, a purple black. In moist soil throughout the state. It is found in wet, open woodland, about lakes, and along streams and fences. The leaves and leaflets of this species are variable. Rarely some of the leaves are bipinnate at the base. The pubescence of the lower surface of the leaflets varies from slightly pubescent to densely soft-pubescent (var. submollis Rehder). The densely pubescent form is more or less frequent throughout the state. The pubescence often varies much on the same plant and it is of no advantage to divide our plants on this basis since all intermediate forms can be found.

From Flora of the Indiana Dunes (1930) - Donald C. Peattie

(Common Elder.) Shrub 1-4 m. high; leaflets 5-11, the lower often 3-parted, mostly smooth; flowers pure white, odorous. - A common shrub of swales, river banks and swamps throughout our area. The berries are made into wine.